Archives for April 2015

What a great way to spent a holiday! going to Cape Town or as they call it in South Africa, the Mother City!I had a short holiday but a very enjoyable stay. In this post I will outline my itinerary that you can follow if you wish.

Day 1 – Arrival in Cape Town
The flight from London to Johannesburg is actually a nice flight taking around 12 hours depending on the carrier you choose. I usually select a night flight which means I can sleep at least a bit on the flight.

We stayed in the wonderful area of Table View right next to Bloubergstrand, a neighbourhood overlooking the iconic Table Mountain.

View over Table Mountain and Cape Town

Day 2 – Wineland and lunch at La Petite Ferme

This was a wonderful day of driving around the Wine regions of around Cape Town. The areas we visited was Stellenbosch and Franchoek. If you are planning to visit my suggestion would be to stay in or around this area, Franchoek is a quaint little town that will bring you all the best of South Africa, with wine, great food and hospitality.

My number two overall suggestion for visiting Cape Town would be to have lunch at La Petite Ferme. The setting of the restaurant and the food is just exquisite. Its well worth spending a day going out to this little gem.

Entrance to the vineyard

Views from the restaurant down the Franchoek Valley

Restaurant setting

Day 3 – Hout Bay

We started the day off going for a really nice breakfast in Camps Bay. What a wonderful area of Cape Town this is. It feels like you are more on the French Riviera rather than Africa when you drive along the houses built up against the mountain. Here you are spoilt for choice to have breakfast and feel the morning sun starting to warm up.

Camps Bay beach overlooking Lions Head

The idea was to drive around the mountain through Kloofnek past Constantia via Noordhoek and Chapman peak however we were very quickly stopped and had to make our way back to Camps Bay due to the road being closed for one of the worst mountain fires Cape Town has seen in recent years.

Hout Bay is a stunning town a stone through away from Cape Town with a prime example of one of the many natural harbours that South Africa boast of.

A little friend welcoming you to the harbour in Hout Bay

Lunch was planned at Mariners Wharf which is my number 3 suggestion of places to visit when in Cape Town. My suggestion is to have the Calamari Rings here, they are the best I have ever had. Each time I return I am reminded of the great seafood this restaurant has to offer.

Yellow tail with garlic butter and calamari rings

Day 4,5 and 6 – West Coast

More often than not visiting Cape Town results in staying in and around the mother city rather than venturing a bit further afield especially not up the west coast, however what a little gem. This is a stunning area with great attractions.

One of those little gems is the west coast national park. Especially make your way Kraalbaai to find untouched and unspoiled beaches with stretches and stretches of white sand. Well worth packing a picnic basket for.

Kraalbaai lagoon beach

On the opposite side of the peninsula is the Atlantic ocean at Tsaarsbank with stunning rolling waves. Well worth the stop.

Tsaarsbank white dunes and rolling waves

My NUMBER ONE suggestion for visiting Cape Town is going to Die Strandloper restaurant.

Entrance to the restaurant

10 Course Menu

Freshly baked bread for the first course

Bread

Stacking fish

Entertainment

Day 7 – Calitzdorp

This was a great day driving from the west coast on the infamous route 62 or the “artist route” as its more commonly know. Ths drive is a great drive past all the wine lands, mountain passes and small towns in the Boland like Montagu. The days driving ended in Calitzdorp, where we stayed in the welcoming 365 on St Helena.

Welcome South African style

Wine making in the Boland

Great arty farty wine and port bottles

Ostrage Farm in Outshorn

Grapes skins after being pressed

This is a quick overview of the wonderful places that I visited. I hope you enjoy and give you an apatite for visiting Cape Town.

What a great idea to come to Antwerp for a long weekend. We are fortunate in the UK to get Friday (Good Friday) the weekend and Monday (Easter Monday) as a bank holiday – yay 4 days off is a mini break from work.

This year we decided to visit Antwerp over the Easter break. I have visited quite a few times and each time I say that this is a City for Me! I really love this place and can see myself living here – saying that, the romance of a place are usually worn off way too early, but still a nice fantasy.

I have a number of friends living in Antwerp and as always we arranged to meet up with them. One of my very good friends arranged a number of restaurants for us. One of them stood out and worth mentioning.

a l’improviste was a great experience and the restaurant advertise themselves as a “cooktheatre” (kooktheater). The concept is quite simple and similar to “pop up” restaurants where the Chef produce meals from fresh produce and all the guest enjoy the same meal. The evening started with an anamuse-bouche. Starter consisted of a bowl of clams – just wonderful and freshly baked rolls to mop up the sauce. This was followed by the soup which was cream of mushroom with smoked duck breast.

Cream of mushroom soup with smoked duck breast

The main course was really the star of the show with a wonderful lamb, succulent cooked.

Lamb main course

Before dessert we were offered a cheese platter, this is an additional charge or alternatively the cheese platter can be taken instead of the dessert.

Cheese platter

Dessert was Strawberries served three ways, fresh strawberries, strawberry mouse and a strawberry sorbet. This was served with burned meringue.

Strawberry dessert

For the last bit of theatre was the lovely biscuits with our coffee. Just perfect to finish the dinner off.

Biscuits for coffee

Next time you wish to visit Antwerp, give this place a try. Its a great experience and an wonderful way to spent the evening. The host and service was great with the chefs involvement with the customers a great addition to the wonderful food.

Book Recommendation

One of my favourite books that I would recommend any traveller to read. You will love this and hopefully inspire you to travel even more.